How a Great Collab is Created
Jan 23, 2023 16:33:41 GMT -5
Kengplant, Stephanie (swordlilly), and 3 more like this
Post by June Scarlet on Jan 23, 2023 16:33:41 GMT -5
Ever wonder how a Great Collab is created? Want to learn more about Great Collabs? We’ve got you covered right here! We’ll go over:
- Collab Basics: What is a Great Collab and how does it work?
- Collab Beginning: A history of Great Collabs and how they started out
- Modern Collabs: How Great Collabs are currently run
- The Collab Volunteer Team: Meet the volunteers who organize and get the word out about Great Collabs
Great Collabs are a project done out of love for the community. Themes are exciting and encourage greater group participation. People look forward to and love these events, especially since the site itself has slowed down. Creative avenues are still going strong, as is the community that supports it. We want to encourage that for years to come. Thank you for your support, and let’s get started!
Collab Basics
A Great Collab is when several Neopians agree to submit to one issue of the Times with the same theme outside of official Neopian holidays. Unlike official special issues, TNT is not involved in their creation or deciding the themes, although the volunteer organizers still give the NT Editor notice on upcoming user Great Collabs. That means if the user-voted theme is Grey, everyone will write something to do with grey, however they interpret that theme. Some people might draw a comic about their Grey Neopet, some might write about grey, cloudy days, and some might even write about a history of grey items on Neopets. Part of the fun of Great Collabs is seeing how creative people get in sticking to the theme.
Not to be confused with collaborations, which is shortened to collabs as well. That’s when two or three authors write and submit one article, short story, series, or comic together.
About once a year, suggestions for new themes are collected and voted upon. The top winners are chosen as Great Collab themes for the following year. Once a date is chosen for a theme by the NT editor, advertisement begins. Volunteers get the word out about the Great Collab in as many places as they can, inlcuding Neomails, Neoboards, the NTWF, and more. They also collect a list of those who have expressed interest in order to send reminders.
Collab Beginnings
There’s two eras of Great Collabs. The first era Great Collabs were organized on the NTWF, for members of the forum. The second era got its start on the Neoboards, and while it’s now organized on the NTWF, it also reaches out to and includes non-forum writers and artists.
Great Collabs got their start with April Fools pranks like Goldrun in Issue 385 or Lutari Island opening in Issue 488. There were also some standalone user-led Great Collab issues that were published, spearheaded by a variety of NTWF members outside the current volunteer team.
- The Great Collaboration, September 2008, Issues 358-61: Wanderers Great Collab
- Scars, October 2009, Issues 412-6: Paralax Great Collab
- Memories of the PPL, May 2010, Issues 442-5: Petpet Protection League Great Collab
- Thieves’ Guild, September 2011, Issue 514: Thieves Great Collab
- Revenge of the Great Collab, 2013: Never left planning stages
Meanwhile, in August 2013, the chatgroup Just a Couple of Writers formed on the Writers neoboard. In November of that year, they decided to try submitting entries together with the same shared theme, honoring the anniversary of the crash of Faerieland in The Faerie’s Ruin plot. Five themed pieces appeared in Issue 623. It was very exciting, and the writers who participated were enthused about working together to create something bigger than just one person could do on their own.
We were so inspired by the success of our Mini-Collab that we decided to do it again with an Ode to Villains. This time, however, we invited more writers to join in with us. We also neomailed the Droplet about the theme. She was really quite excited and supportive, and surprised us by decorating the newspaper in a special villain theme and giving us an item. This was our first real, official Great Collab, and the start of the second era of Great Collabs.
Modern Collabs
The process of creating a Great Collab has changed and evolved over the years, just as the internet itself. What started out organized over Neoboards, Neomails, and Petpages moved to forums, Google Docs, and Discord.
Currently, we collect ideas for the Great Collab on the NTWF, and vote for them there as well. The top two or three themes are chosen for the next coming user Great Collabs. We reach out to the Editor with the themes, and ask what date would work for the next Great Collab. It’s up to them what works best with the NT schedule.
We alert people to the upcoming Great Collab through every avenue we can think of: Neomails, Neoboards, the NTWF, the r/Neopets Discord group, Neopets Nation Facebook group, and Petpages. TNT sometimes advertises as well in the Editorial or New Features.
We collect the usernames of those who have expressed interest in a Google Sheet. This is so we can neomail them reminders and pass this list along to the editor. We used to keep this list internally for reminders only, but a past editor requested this list for their records. Now, we provide it automatically. It’s completely optional to be on the list, and it does not guarantee that you’ll make it into the Times. It’s ultimately up to the editor who gets chosen for publication.
The Collab Volunteer Team
June: Updates the Petpage at www.neopets.com/~Cleopatra275, creates the Google Sheets, organizes April Fools.
Liou: Sends out and responds to Neomails, combs through past lists of Great Collabs to find users to neomail about upcoming Great Collabs, updates Google Sheets with interested people.
Carolyn: Advertises Great Collabs on the Neoboards, Discord, and elsewhere; creates and manages the NTWF post/bookkeeping through the forum; updates Google Sheets with interested people.
All: Reach out to the Editor with questions, and to answer questions from both users and the editor, discuss timing and when to post threads and send out neomails, serve as a contact point for users.
Past volunteers: Kat, Rabbit, and Moni have assisted with past Great Collabs (Thank you!)
Once the volunteer team has advertised the Great Collab and collected the full list of those who have expressed interest to us, they send this list to the NT Editor. This list is not exhaustive; not everyone who submits to the theme tells the volunteer team, nor do they need to. The Editor then goes through their usual process of deciding who gets published, if and what a prize will be, and putting together the issue and publishing it. There may be further clarifying questions the Editor has for the volunteer team, but once the list is given to the Editor, communication on that topic ends between the two parties.
Final Thoughts
If you have any further questions, feel free to ask us. We'd be happy to explain. Thank you again for your support!
Parts of this post were edited from this article: www.neopets.com/ntimes/index.phtml?section=576472&week=819
With reference to this post as well: ntwriters.proboards.com/post/2710277/thread
- Collab Basics: What is a Great Collab and how does it work?
- Collab Beginning: A history of Great Collabs and how they started out
- Modern Collabs: How Great Collabs are currently run
- The Collab Volunteer Team: Meet the volunteers who organize and get the word out about Great Collabs
Great Collabs are a project done out of love for the community. Themes are exciting and encourage greater group participation. People look forward to and love these events, especially since the site itself has slowed down. Creative avenues are still going strong, as is the community that supports it. We want to encourage that for years to come. Thank you for your support, and let’s get started!
Collab Basics
A Great Collab is when several Neopians agree to submit to one issue of the Times with the same theme outside of official Neopian holidays. Unlike official special issues, TNT is not involved in their creation or deciding the themes, although the volunteer organizers still give the NT Editor notice on upcoming user Great Collabs. That means if the user-voted theme is Grey, everyone will write something to do with grey, however they interpret that theme. Some people might draw a comic about their Grey Neopet, some might write about grey, cloudy days, and some might even write about a history of grey items on Neopets. Part of the fun of Great Collabs is seeing how creative people get in sticking to the theme.
Not to be confused with collaborations, which is shortened to collabs as well. That’s when two or three authors write and submit one article, short story, series, or comic together.
About once a year, suggestions for new themes are collected and voted upon. The top winners are chosen as Great Collab themes for the following year. Once a date is chosen for a theme by the NT editor, advertisement begins. Volunteers get the word out about the Great Collab in as many places as they can, inlcuding Neomails, Neoboards, the NTWF, and more. They also collect a list of those who have expressed interest in order to send reminders.
Collab Beginnings
There’s two eras of Great Collabs. The first era Great Collabs were organized on the NTWF, for members of the forum. The second era got its start on the Neoboards, and while it’s now organized on the NTWF, it also reaches out to and includes non-forum writers and artists.
Great Collabs got their start with April Fools pranks like Goldrun in Issue 385 or Lutari Island opening in Issue 488. There were also some standalone user-led Great Collab issues that were published, spearheaded by a variety of NTWF members outside the current volunteer team.
- The Great Collaboration, September 2008, Issues 358-61: Wanderers Great Collab
- Scars, October 2009, Issues 412-6: Paralax Great Collab
- Memories of the PPL, May 2010, Issues 442-5: Petpet Protection League Great Collab
- Thieves’ Guild, September 2011, Issue 514: Thieves Great Collab
- Revenge of the Great Collab, 2013: Never left planning stages
Meanwhile, in August 2013, the chatgroup Just a Couple of Writers formed on the Writers neoboard. In November of that year, they decided to try submitting entries together with the same shared theme, honoring the anniversary of the crash of Faerieland in The Faerie’s Ruin plot. Five themed pieces appeared in Issue 623. It was very exciting, and the writers who participated were enthused about working together to create something bigger than just one person could do on their own.
We were so inspired by the success of our Mini-Collab that we decided to do it again with an Ode to Villains. This time, however, we invited more writers to join in with us. We also neomailed the Droplet about the theme. She was really quite excited and supportive, and surprised us by decorating the newspaper in a special villain theme and giving us an item. This was our first real, official Great Collab, and the start of the second era of Great Collabs.
Modern Collabs
The process of creating a Great Collab has changed and evolved over the years, just as the internet itself. What started out organized over Neoboards, Neomails, and Petpages moved to forums, Google Docs, and Discord.
Currently, we collect ideas for the Great Collab on the NTWF, and vote for them there as well. The top two or three themes are chosen for the next coming user Great Collabs. We reach out to the Editor with the themes, and ask what date would work for the next Great Collab. It’s up to them what works best with the NT schedule.
We alert people to the upcoming Great Collab through every avenue we can think of: Neomails, Neoboards, the NTWF, the r/Neopets Discord group, Neopets Nation Facebook group, and Petpages. TNT sometimes advertises as well in the Editorial or New Features.
We collect the usernames of those who have expressed interest in a Google Sheet. This is so we can neomail them reminders and pass this list along to the editor. We used to keep this list internally for reminders only, but a past editor requested this list for their records. Now, we provide it automatically. It’s completely optional to be on the list, and it does not guarantee that you’ll make it into the Times. It’s ultimately up to the editor who gets chosen for publication.
The Collab Volunteer Team
June: Updates the Petpage at www.neopets.com/~Cleopatra275, creates the Google Sheets, organizes April Fools.
Liou: Sends out and responds to Neomails, combs through past lists of Great Collabs to find users to neomail about upcoming Great Collabs, updates Google Sheets with interested people.
Carolyn: Advertises Great Collabs on the Neoboards, Discord, and elsewhere; creates and manages the NTWF post/bookkeeping through the forum; updates Google Sheets with interested people.
All: Reach out to the Editor with questions, and to answer questions from both users and the editor, discuss timing and when to post threads and send out neomails, serve as a contact point for users.
Past volunteers: Kat, Rabbit, and Moni have assisted with past Great Collabs (Thank you!)
Once the volunteer team has advertised the Great Collab and collected the full list of those who have expressed interest to us, they send this list to the NT Editor. This list is not exhaustive; not everyone who submits to the theme tells the volunteer team, nor do they need to. The Editor then goes through their usual process of deciding who gets published, if and what a prize will be, and putting together the issue and publishing it. There may be further clarifying questions the Editor has for the volunteer team, but once the list is given to the Editor, communication on that topic ends between the two parties.
Final Thoughts
If you have any further questions, feel free to ask us. We'd be happy to explain. Thank you again for your support!
Parts of this post were edited from this article: www.neopets.com/ntimes/index.phtml?section=576472&week=819
With reference to this post as well: ntwriters.proboards.com/post/2710277/thread